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Irony And Contradiction In Hills Like White Elephants

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In Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” the reader is forced to dive into the story to find their own interpretation of the story. Hemingway seems to tell multiple stories by giving most of the dialogue and details he adds extra meaning. The story begins with a man and woman talking in a train station about an operation the woman is going to be getting, and with context clues, we come to understand this operation to be an abortion. One possible interpretation of a theme in this story could be the burial of feelings in order to make people happy. The reasons for this are because the girl tries to lighten the mood at first by starting a conversation, then tries to please the man by claiming she is doing the operation for him, …show more content…

The woman boldly states “Oh, yes. But I don’t care about me. And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine.” the irony and contradiction within this statement are to show just how scared she is. The woman is so terrified that instead of giving in to her fears, she instead fully confides in the man regarding the possible outcomes of the operation. This provides a great transition into the final sequence of the short story and allows for a dramatic change in scenery as the woman walks to the end of the train station. When the woman reaches the end of the station she stares at the scenery as the shadow of a cloud covers the …show more content…

The man hyperbolically exclaims that they could “have everything” and the woman attempts to set him back into a reality where he doesn’t need to consistently persuade her to get this operation. He continuously declares they will have everything, and be able to go anywhere but the woman just wants to talk normally. The dialogue re-opens the discussion from earlier about if she really wants to do it and she once again claims that she is okay and willing to go through with the operation, and once she exclaims this she asks to stop chatting then shortly after, restarts the conversation again. The two finally reach a conclusion with their reassurances, yet the woman has still not said what she really wants to say so she suggests more alcohol. As she gets back with the beer, an announcement that the train is leaving soon so the man moves the luggage closer to the location of the train. When the man gets back, he asks if she feels better and she replies “I feel fine, there’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.” This concludes the woman’s character without her ever giving an explanation for why she feels so unsure of the operation. The reader is left to take into account body language, certain responses, and overall look for the deeper meaning of her character which provides an

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Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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